Stats (Energy, Stamina, Attack, Defense, Health)

Stats are probably the number one concern of new players once they get a feel for the game. How much should I put into attack? How much stamina should I get? What does each do? Well fear not, I'm about to simplify things and tell you everything you need to know.

First off, what does each stat do?
Energy = quests, fortify (heal) in monster battles where applicable
Stamina = fight other players, fight monsters, enter Guild battles
Attack = boosts attacking power against other players and monsters
Defense = boosts defending power against attacking players, increases fortify (heal) amount in monster battles when applicable
Health = stay alive longer when fighting other players and monsters, especially in guild battles

So then how much should you put in each?

BSI (Battle Strength Index)

BSI is a statistic invented by CA players to determine relative strength. Its formula is: (attack+defense) / level. To be competitive in Duels and Guild warfare (and Invasions to a much lesser extent), most players recommend a BSI of 3.0 but to really be a dominating force on the battlefield, you'll need a BSI of at least 4.0.

Attack:Defense Ratios


Health: The Least Important Stat

In monster fights, health isn't really necessary since its very easy and cheap to heal yourself with Celesta. In PvP, high health will allow you to be attacked more often and lose more money & battle points. In guild battles, high health players can be tempting targets in guild warfare because their attack and defense stats will likely be weaker than normal. So why bother at all? In guild battles health helps you stay alive longer- especially when you're being suicided. While health is therefore useful in guild battles, I think it should take a back seat to attack and defense. A good rule of thumb for health is it should be roughly equal to your level (if you're under lv100 don't bother adding to it except through praying to Aurora).

If have a BSI of 3.0 and/or one of the health-based Generals (Aurora/Corvintheus/Jahanna/Aurelius) you can get away with boosting your health a little more than normal but anything much more than 1.5x your level would probably be a waste of skill points.

"Power Levelers" and Low-Level "PVP Beasts"

Power-levelers boost their energy straight to 400-500, then their stamina up to similar levels, and only then start focusing on attack and defense. While this is undeniably the quickest way to get to level 500+, I am strongly against it. With energy and stamina at 300 each, it'll be lv100-lv120 before you start putting anything into attack/defense. From here, it won't be until you reach lv500 or so that you'll have a respectable BSI and begin winning duels & guild battles. For the many months that it will take for you to get there, you'll be smashed to pieces. Even once you hit lv500, many players around you will have only 150-200 energy/stamina with really high BSI's and you'll still be beaten. Despite your higher leveling speed, the higher BSI's of other players might mean it'll be lv800-1000 before you can really be awesome. Most Castle Age players will have quit before they reach this, especially since getting beaten all the takes a lot of fun out of the game. A lot of people swear by the "300 rule" which is a lighter power-leveling build where you increase your energy and stamina to only 300. I think this is much more reasonable, but again only if you are ok with being terrible for the first month and ok for the next several months. You should still expect to be beaten by more pvp-focused builds at all levels until you reach lv500+. Now with that said, I highly recommend the power-leveling build if you want to spend a lot of money doing FP refills, but that's another story.

"PVP Beasts" are players with a BSI of 5.0 or higher. Don't even think about this unless you're already past level 300. You will be sacrificing so much energy and stamina it will take you ages to level up and unlock new content. I don't care who you are, games get boring quickly if you're doing the same thing over and over. The "under lv300" is relavant because that's about where new content stops. I think the last summonable monster is currently Kessaran at lv320 and the last chest is at lv350. Just about everything else happens prior to lv300. I'm sure new high-level content will eventually be added but for now this is the way it is. This is also another reason NOT to adopt a power-leveling build... what's the rush to lv500?

So with that all said, go ahead and post your own recommended stat builds. Feel free to expand on the "300 rule" too!

Vanray's Stat Build

1. Start initially by boosting energy and stamina to 100 each. This will allow you to sleep for 8 hours without having any wasted regeneration time and make you level really quickly at the beginning.
2. Increase your (attack+defense) to about 200 so that you can be good at PvP and get a lot of coins. Early in the game you can get up to 100k gold for attacking some players, which is a lot of money when you don't have a lot of land. Of course once you get all this money you should use it to buy land.
3. Now begin again to boost energy and stamina to 250 each but factor in 6500 points of praying to Ambrosia (energy) and Azeron (stamina), meaning without them your energy will be 185 and your stamina will be 227. I like the idea of having 250 stamina because it allows you to get two 100stam or four 50stam hits in on a monster with enough left over to join a guild battle and do a little PvP. I like 250 energy so that both stats will approach their max at around the same time and I don't have to log in any earlier to prevent one from hitting the max and thus wasting some recharging ability. Personally I'm stopping at 4500 Azeron and Ambrosia points until I can get the Moonfall Amulet from Aurora, meaning I'll have 230 energy/240 stamina for a while but that's ok with me.
4. Put everything else into attack and defense with a little into health. I'll have around a 5.5 BSI once I hit lv300, which is my real my end goal!

Good stuff, Vanray!!